Halloween is around the corner and at our house, we begin getting ready for our annual Haunted Halloween Party in September. We discuss the theme, our costumes, props, decorations, etc. At the end of September, the garage gets cleaned out and the walls of the Haunted House start going up.
It hasn’t always been this way at our house, it started with our neighbors. They had an elaborate Christmas presentation in there yard and I knew we couldn’t compete. So, I decided we would just “claim” Halloween. We began with the graveyard scene in our front yard. Each year we bought more decorations and soon we had a pretty good set up. The year “Mr. Bones” joined us, everything changed.
Mr. Bones began greeting our trick or treaters by dropping from the top of a tree. Luckily, I convinced my hubby that he should only do this to “older kids”. If I didn’t convince him, then the first child (or their parents) quickly let him know Mr. Bones was too scary for the younger crowd. We were hoping the kids would be so scared they would drop their bags of candy and run. Unfortunately, we did scare them and they ran off, but they took their candy with them!
Hubby and my daughter had so much fun trying to scare the middle and high schoolers, that the Haunted House idea soon became a reality. The first Haunted House took months of preparation as hubby and his brother worked on a design and began transforming our garage. Hubby was in charge of the Haunted House and I was in charge of the decorations inside and outside, food, drinks and games to entertain the younger kids.
One of my favorite decorating idea was soaking white sheets in tea (to stain) and then ripping and tearing them up. We used the sheets on furniture, including couches, chairs, tables and we used them as old ratty curtains. It made the house look like it had been vacant for a long time or possible even abandoned.
In addition, we replaced ALL the light bulbs with black, orange or red light bulbs. We strung Halloween lights all around the house, some were colored purple and orange and others had decorations on them, like plastic eyeballs. This gave a dark “eerie” glow to the inside. We played old black & white Halloween classics like Frankenstein and Dracula (DVD’s) on small TV’s that we placed on the food table and in the bathroom. We also had Young Frankenstein playing in the background on our regular TV. We took down our photos and pictures and replaced them with the hologram photos that would change from the nice old fashioned married couple to a scary skeleton bride and groom.
The food included monster toes and fingers, edible eyeballs, mummy wraps, brain cupcakes, “vomit” queso and our friends brought their own special Halloween treats. My favorite part was not feeling the need for the house to be in typical “party presentation” mode. A Haunted House theme, includes dust and spider webs, so no need to stress over a “clean house”.
The Haunted House is the main event at this party and families have been warned, it is SCARY (and it’s not rated “G”)! This is one of hubby’s favorite activities every year and he does a phenomenal job. Now I have never been a big fan of haunted houses. Yes, I admit they scare me and they are just evil! I always try to tone it down, but I have learned the haunted house is my hubby’s project. After several haunted Halloween parties, my hubby’s reputation (for our haunted house) is well known in this neighborhood. Which means, he has to change it every year and the kids are always surprised.
Hubby giving the tour of the Haunted House!
We understand not all kids are like ours and enjoy this type of activity, so we do provide other games and activities. In the backyard, we set up a pumpkin bean bag toss, pin the face on the jack-o-lantern, find the hidden ghosts, coloring activities and the mummy wrap (which ended up being a wrap the backyard game). The younger kids really enjoyed coloring Halloween pictures and taping them around the house. We also decided some kids may enjoy it if they saw it during the day. So, last year, hubby did allow families to come by earlier in the day to “tour” the haunted house in the daylight with their kids.
The kids (and adults) love the party and every year we get more volunteers and help with running the haunted house. It has become one of our favorite holidays and brings our neighborhood friends and families together. The party is always before Halloween and we let the kids run the haunted house on Halloween. So if you really want a good scare, stop by Halloween Night, you never know what will happen when the kids run it!
This has been one of our favorite family activities. We plan it together, we prepare together and we work together! This is one of those activities that we hope the kids will want to continue for many years. We know when our kids are grown these parties will be included in some of their favorite family memories.
Click on the story book below to check out some pictures of our last Haunted Halloween Party!
We are always looking for great ideas to incorporate into our Halloween party. So, if you have any fun ideas or know of a great website that includes ideas for a Halloween party, please share it below. Then come back before Halloween to check out some more great Halloween party ideas.
Cammie Moise